Russo-Ukraine War - 03 April 2022 - Day 38
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On 24 February 2022, Ukraine was suddenly and deliberately attacked by land, naval and air forces of Russia, igniting the largest European war since the Great Patriotic War. The military buildup in preceeding months makes it obvious that the unprovoked and dastardly Russian attack was deliberately planned long in advance. During the intervening time, the Russian government had deliberately sought to deceive the world by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.
"To initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." [Judgment of the International Military Tribunal]
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" in Ukraine in response to the appeal of the leaders of the "Donbass republics" for help. That attack is a blatant violation of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. Putin stressed that Moscow's goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he was “deeply shocked” by images of dead civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, and called for an independent investigation that “leads to effective accountability”. Guterres posted his comments on Twitter a day after witnesses and officials said that Russian troops killed hundreds of civilians as they withdrew from the town near Kyiv. “I am deeply shocked by the images of civilians killed in Bucha, Ukraine,” Guterres said, joining Western officials in expressing outrage. "It is essential that an independent investigation leads to effective accountability,” he said. Ukraine’s prosecutor-general says the bodies of 410 civilians have been recovered from areas in the wider Kyiv region from which Russian forces withdrew.
Russia’s defence ministry denied Russian forces killed civilians in Bucha. The Ministry of Defense emphasized that during the entire time this settlement was under the control of the Russian army, not a single local resident suffered from violent actions. Moscow is demanding an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss “Ukrainian radicals’ provocation” in Bucha (the town outside Kyiv where Russian troops slaughtered hundreds of civilians but deny it). Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says Moscow requested a UN Security Council meeting to discuss Kyiv’s attempts to disrupt peace talks and escalate violence with a “provocation” in Bucha. “Russian Federation requested a meeting of the U.N. Security Council in connection with the provocation of the Ukrainian military and radicals in the city of Bucha,” Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel. “The idea behind the next crime of the ‘Kyiv’s regime’ is the disruption of peace negotiations and the escalation of violence.”
Because of the situation in Bucha, Russia demanded to convene a meeting of the UN Security Council on April 4. "We will bring presumptuous Ukrainian provocateurs and their Western patrons to clean water," said Dmitry Polyansky, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the World Organization.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation called photos and videos from the village of Bucha in the Kiev region another provocation of Kyiv. The Russian military, as noted in the department, left Bucha on March 30, and the mayor of the city, Anatoly Fedoruk, in his address on March 31, did not mention "any local residents shot in the streets with their hands tied." All "evidence of crimes" appeared only when employees of the Security Service of Ukraine arrived in Bucha, the ministry added.
“It’s particularity concerning that all the bodies of people whose images were published by the Kiev regime, after at least four days, have not stiffened, do not have characteristic cadaveric spots, and have fresh blood in their wounds,” the military noted, adding that all these inconsistencies show that the whole Bucha affair “has been staged by the Kiev regime for Western media, as was the case with the [fake news from the] Mariupol maternity clinic.”
The Ukrainian authorities, through the publication of propaganda videos about the events in the Ukrainian village of Bucha, are trying to push the United States and NATO to participate in hostilitie. "Zelensky declares "genocide" is underway on CBS this morning. Let's see how much longer US politicians are willing to hold out against full-fledged military intervention when their new hero is telling them they're enabling genocide.... There is nothing subtle about this latest attempt to cajole US/NATO military intervention. Best way to do it: assert the existence of a "genocide" and tell foreign governments they're betraying the legacy of "Never Forget"." This opinion was expressed in a series of messages on Twitter by American journalist and commentator Michael Tracey. Tracey supported Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primaries and supported Tulsi Gabbard's presidential campaign.
Video materials relating to the events in the Ukrainian village of Bucha are presented by Kiev without context and are not supported by any evidence; one cannot blindly believe the propaganda. This opinion was expressed in a series of messages on Twitter by the American journalist and lawyer Glenn Greenwald, with whose assistance former US intelligence officer Edward Snowden previously made public data on US programs for total electronic surveillance.
"Concentrated evil has come to our land. Murderers, butchers, rapists, looters, who call themselves an army and who only deserve to die after what they have done," Zelensky said. "I invite Ms. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy to visit Bucha and see what the policy of appeasement of Russia has led to in 14 years. We do not blame the West. We don't blame anyone but the Russian military who did it. But we have the right to talk about indecision".
Kiev blamed the Bucha killings on Moscow, with Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba claiming it was a "deliberate massacre" by Russian troops. “The Bucha massacre was deliberate. Russians aim to eliminate as many Ukrainians as they can. We must stop them and kick them out. I demand new, devastating G7 sanctions NOW,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter. Top Western politicians have backed Kiev’s assessment of Bucha, with some explicitly pinning the blame for the killings on Moscow as well. “Russian authorities will have to answer for these crimes,” French President Emmanuel Macron said. A similar stance was voiced by the UK, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss stating that such “indiscriminate attacks” on civilians should be probed as war crimes. “We will not allow Russia to cover up their involvement in these atrocities through cynical disinformation,” she said.
Germany’s defence minister said the European Union must discuss banning the import of Russian gas after Ukrainian and European officials accused Russian forces of committing atrocities near Kyiv. “There has to be a response. Such crimes must not remain unanswered,” the defence ministry quoted Christine Lambrecht as saying in an interview with the public broadcaster, ARD. Earlier, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Western allies would agree to further sanctions on Russia in the coming days.
Russia will achieve all the goals of the operation in Ukraine, said the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov in the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin program on Sunday. Prior to this, in an interview with the Belarus-24 TV channel , he said that the demilitarization of Ukraine "is in full swing," and its military infrastructure "is largely destroyed."
The restoration of the borders of the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics (LPR and DPR) is one of the goals of Russia's special operation in Ukraine. This was stated by the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov on the air of the Belarus 1 channel. “ One of the main goals of the operation is actually the salvation of these republics and the restoration of their statehood within the borders of 2014, ” Peskov said.
The Russian military, according to the Defense Ministry, disabled airfields in Poltava and Dnipro with precision-guided weapons, as well as destroyed an oil refinery and three fuel storage facilities near Odessa. The strike on the airfield in the Kiev region disabled the Ukrainian center for warning and control of aviation and air defense forces, the department added.
Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin visited Mariupol and presented state awards to servicemen of the People's Militia of the DPR directly at the combat position. The commander of a separate motorized rifle battalion "Somalia" of the 1st Army Corps, Lieutenant Colonel Timur Kurilkin (call sign Baykot) was awarded the Gold Star medal of the Hero of the DPR. He was also awarded the state award of the Russian Federation - the Order of Courage. “For the third week we have been cleaning Mariupol from fascist reptiles. We are all met there with kind, sincere words,” Timur Kurilkin emphasized, adding that Azov (an organization whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation) and other Ukrainian units literally strangled the city. Since March 7, the battalion, as part of the troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, has been taking part in the liberation of Mariupol. During the fighting, personnel destroyed about 45 units of military equipment and more than 250 nationalists.
The UK Ministry of Defence reported " Heavy fighting has continued in Mariupol as Russian forces attempt to take the city. The city continues to be subject to intense, indiscriminate strikes but Ukrainian Forces maintain a staunch resistance, retaining control in central areas. Mariupol is almost certainly a key objective of the Russian invasion as it will secure a land corridor from Russia to the occupied territory of Crimea."
Russian attacks have destroyed an oil refinery in the central Poltava region, local officials said. Kremenchuk, 250km (150 miles) southeast of Kyiv along the Dnipro River, had Ukraine’s only fully functioning oil refinery. Dmytro Lunin, governor of the Poltava region, said on television that the refinery had been destroyed in a rocket attack. “The fire at the refinery has been extinguished but the facility has been completely destroyed and can no longer function,” he said. The refinery’s destruction could not be independently verified. The plant processed 3.2 million tonnes of oil last year and its loss could prove a blow to Ukraine’s defence effort.
The operational-tactical aviation of the Aerospace Forces (VKS) of Russia hit more than 40 military facilities of Ukraine during the day. This was announced by the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov at a briefing. “Among them: three launchers of anti-aircraft missile systems, including one Buk-M1 and two Osa-AKM, one artillery battery, two installations of multiple launch rocket systems, two field depots of rocket and artillery weapons and ammunition, and also 8 strongholds and areas of concentration of military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Russian air defense systems shot down three unmanned aerial vehicles in the air in the areas of the settlements of Krasnogorka and Grabovskoye.
“High-precision air-launched missiles destroyed large fuel storage facilities in Konstantinovka, Mykolaiv region, Slavuta, Rivne region, and Ternopil. From these facilities, fuel was supplied to groups of Ukrainian troops in the Nikolaev and Donetsk directions. As a result of the strike on the Balovnoye airfield in the suburbs of Nikolaev, an aircraft parking lot and a fuel storage facility were destroyed. A strike on the military airfield Vasilkov in the Kiev region disabled the Center for Warning and Control of Aviation and Air Defense of the Ukrainian Air Force.""
Russia’s defence ministry said its missiles had destroyed an oil refinery and three fuel storage facilities near Odesa. It said they had been used by Ukraine to supply its troops near Mykolaiv. Vladyslav Nazarov, an officer of Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command, said on Telegram that there had been a missile attack on “critical infrastructure”. Two columns of thick, black smoke could be seen rising into a grey sky before spreading out over the city. “All relevant systems and structures are working … No casualties reported,” Nazarov added.
Odesa is the main base for Ukraine’s navy, alongside other Ukrainian Black Sea ports such as Mariupol and Mykolaiv. If taken, it would give Russia a land corridor from Crimea to Transnistria, a Russian-speaking breakaway province of Moldova that hosts Russian troops.
Russian military looters occupy courier deliveries to Belarus to send home loot - TVs, toasters, fishing tackle, and other equipment. A 3-hour CCTV recording from a courier service in Mazyr, Belarus, showed Russian servicemen sending endless packages with what they stole.
Jerome at Military Land reported "Ukrainian forces have reached the border with Belarus in Kyiv Oblast and regained control over the most of Chernihiv Oblast. The Russian army has confirmed the change of tactics by its actions during the past two days. They have continued to hit strategically important locations across Ukraine and focused the ground operations primarily on the area of Donbas. Ukrainian General Staff reported that all Russian troops have withdrawn from the Chernihiv Region. However, the regional council indicated there are still some Russian elements scattered in the north, probably near the border. Russian forces have reportedly begun to withdraw from Sumy Oblast across the border to Russia. Ukrainian troops liberated the vicinity of Konotop. The remaining Russian units are concentrated in the area of Putyvl, Buryn and Bolopillia... Ukrainian forces still control the part of Azovstal plant, the southern area near harbor and the northern parts."
“For every Russian tank in Ukraine, there are or will soon be more than ten anti-tank systems,” US State Department Secretary Anthony Blinken said on CNN. Blinken on Sunday declined to confirm reporting from CNN and others that the US was helping facilitate the transfer of Soviet-era tanks to Ukraine, which was one of the weapons systems Zelensky has been seeking. But Blinken said the US and NATO countries were helping to get Ukraine the weapons it needed. Blinken said the State Department would help document any atrocities the Russian military committed against Ukrainian civilians, following new images from AFP out of a town northwest of Ukraine's capital of Kyiv with the bodies of at least 20 civilian men found lying strewn across the street. "You can't help but see these images as a punch to the gut," Blinken told CNN's Dana Bash.
UK PM BoOris Johnson is going to sell anti-ship missiles to Ukraine to protect Odessa from Russia. The UK is working on a plan to supply Ukraine with anti-ship systems, reports the Times. Johnson believes that if the Russian ships are sunk, it will help to disrupt the assault on Odessa. He believes that the Russian army did not occupy Kyiv only thanks to the British NLAW anti-tank systems, allegedly all the tanks were destroyed. Now weapons from "foggy Albion" should also save Odessa from Russians.
Germany will not supply Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine. Welt wrote about this. Thomas C. Theiner noted 03 april 2022 that in Rockensussra in Germany (at 51.268617, 10.689216), 100s of Marder infantry fighting vehicles are parked. The German government is paying to have them dismantled. Ukraine offered to buy them. Germany's Bundeskanzler refused. According to media reports, official Kyiv requested 100 units of this type of infantry fighting vehicles. The request came in last week. But then German Defense Minister Christina Lambrecht , during a telephone conversation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, rejected this request. In the German defense department itself, this information was confirmed to journalists. They explained their refusal there by the fact that all Marder infantry fighting vehicles are bound by obligations within NATO and the issue of their withdrawal from positions, accordingly, should be resolved within NATO.
Vladimir Medinsky, who heads the team of Russian negotiators, said “The Ukrainian side has become more realistic in its approach to issues related to the neutral and non-nuclear status of Ukraine”. Medinsky said that among other things agreed-on by the sides during the talks in Istanbul last week were Kiev’s abstention from the deployment of foreign troops, bases and any offensive strike weapons on Ukrainian territory, the fielding and production of weapons of mass destruction, and the staging of drills with foreign militaries without consent from guarantor states, including Russia.
Medinsky also said that he didn’t share Arakhamia’s optimism on the state of readiness of the draft peace deal, insisting that “it wasn’t yet fit to be submitted to a highest-level meeting.” Russia’s top negotiator pointed out the Ukrainian side has been “lagging far behind in confirming the text of the wording of the draft, even regarding those agreements that have already been reached at the political level.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Finland and Sweden would be quickly brought into the alliance should they seek membership, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stokes security concerns on the bloc’s eastern flank. “Of course, it’s for them to decide but, if they apply, I expect that they will be very much welcomed by all 30 allies and that we will find ways to do that in a relatively quick way to take them into the alliance if they so want,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with CNN.
Ukraine estimates 20,000 people have been killed and more than 10 million have been displaced since the invasion began.
According to the estimates of the Russian Ministry of Defense, since the beginning of the special military operation, Russian troops have destroyed 386 unmanned aerial vehicles of Ukraine, 224 anti-aircraft missile systems, 1918 tanks and other armored vehicles, 209 multiple rocket launchers, 814 field artillery guns and mortars, 1789 units of special military automotive technology.
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